New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has gone into self-isolation until Tuesday after being deemed a close contact of a person who tested positive for COVID-19, the government said.
The exposure took place on January 22 during a flight to Auckland from the town of Kerikeri, the government said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the result of whole-genome sequencing was expected the following day.
That would show if the infection was caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, it said.
Ardern, who is asymptomatic, is feeling well, the statement added. However, she will be tested on Sunday and is in isolation in line with the health ministry's directives.
The governor-general and her staff members, who were also onboard the flight, are following the same isolation procedure.
Iran and the US have continued their attacks in the Gulf as each accused the other of violating an increasingly precarious interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war.
Australia said on Saturday it would double the maximum penalty it can impose on tech firms found to have failed to uphold a ground-breaking social media ban for children, as evidence mounts that the ban has had little effect on teen use.
A strong earthquake struck Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region on Saturday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said, sending out tremors that could be felt from the capital Kabul across the border into neighbouring Pakistan.
Serbia's populist president Aleksandar Vucic, under pressure after months of anti-government protests, said on Saturday he will resign within weeks and the country will hold early presidential and parliamentary elections.
The death toll from Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes rose above 1,400 on Saturday as foreign rescue teams poured into the country and authorities pressed on with the search for survivors in the hardest-hit coastal areas.